There were also small houses of prayer, where Jews prayed throughout the year,
built by Jews who in this way wanted to immortalize their names, such as, for
example, Jechiel Winer's, Piekarski's, Blimele Sender's, the House of Prayer of
the Szajn brothers and so on, where Jews prayed the entire year.

As mentioned, in addition to the listed houses of prayer, the majority of the
small houses of prayer were Hasidic shtiblech. Every Hasid had to pray in his
own shtibl and according to the style of his rebbe, but there were Hasidim who
only liked to pray alone so that no one would disturb their ardent prayer
during which they did not see what was going on around them. On the contrary,
there were Hasidim who stood and prayed quietly and calmly, almost as if not
moving, but with great fervor.

Each shtibl  a world of its own  where unity between the rich man
and the poor man reigned, where everyone used the familiar form, du
[you]. The shtibl was the second home for the Hasidim and for
many the only home, because here they had escaped from all of their
cares and heartaches; here they found cheerfulness and help, as well as
consolation from their daily cares.

This unity, which reigned among Hasidim in every shtibl, however, did not exist
between one shtibl and another because each of them had its own opinions about
city matters and carried on quarrels precisely about religious questions such
as hiring a rabbi or a rabbi who decided matters of rabbinical law, a shoychet
[ritual slaughterer], etc. and thus the Będziner rabbinate consisted of
representatives sent by the large shtiblech which already had control over them
in the city.

Every Hasid had to travel to his rebbe once a year, particularly for the Days
of Awe [Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur]. In general, prayer in the shtiblech was
said with ardor, with life and soul  kol atzmotai tomarnah
[with all my limbs I will say praise]. It was always joyous
in the shtibl and there was no lack of a little whiskey for a bris [ritual
circumcision] or a yahrzeit [yearly anniversary of a death]. On Purim or
Shimchat Torah, when they would go from the house of one Hasid to another,
drinking and eating everything that was prepared  in a word, Hasidim
loved to celebrate and to drink or eat together, in a group.

The majority of Hasidic shtiblech in the city had someone who prayed well at
the lectern, who would sing the nigunim [melodies] from the court
that he brought from the rebbe.

The Gerer Shtibl

The Gerer Hasidim were first in the city, both in quality and quantity, with
their three shtiblech. The large Gerer shtibl was located on Berka Joselewicza
Street. It was one of the oldest in the city. The Achdut young people were
already meeting there in 1905 when the Cossacks attacked them and there were
casualties. The prominent leaders of Aguda worshiped here, the Szapiro
brothers, of whom Reb Mendl was a great teller of stories, Heniek and Towja
Szapiro, J. M. Szenberg, Reb Mendl Rozenzaft, for whom even the mitnagdim
[followers of the Enlightenment and opponents of Hasidim] had respect, the
dayan [religious judge] Reb Heniek Dawid Frydberg, who was considered the great
intellect of the Będzin rabbinate, Reb Lipa Kaminer and his son-in-law,
Mosze Chaim Kaminer, editor of Yiddishe Wochenblat [Yiddish Weekly Newspaper],
Mordechai Wajs, Jekele Szapiro's son-in-law, Reb Szlomo Jicchak Rynski,
president of the kehila. Here the political decisions of the city were made.

The Gerer Hasidim struggled for years to place their rabbi [as the head of the
Jewish community] and they succeeded: the last two rabbis of Będzin were
from the Gerer court, the Rabbi, Reb Hersz Chanoch Lewin, of blessed memory and
after his death  his son, Reb Mendele, may God avenge his blood.

The synagogue from insideThe watercolor painting by S. Cygler

[Page 140]

The western wall of the synagoguePainting by Cygler

The learned men would sit in the shtibl studying Gemara from early in the
morning and discuss Torah. The shtibl was open the entire day and one could
hear the young men studying with well-known Gemara melodies until late into the
night.

The Gerer were known as experts about music and as good bale-tfilot [cantors or
those who pray at the synagogue lectern]; of them, the old Reb Jekele Szapiro,
who prayed at the lectern into his 90's and chanted Kol Nidre [the opening Yom
Kippur prayer renouncing all vows], Musaf [extension of morning prayers on
Shabbos and holidays] and Ne'ilah [concluding prayer on Yom Kippur] during the
Days of Awe; and the brothers Aron and Nuta Koplowicz, Berl Ajchenwald and Reb
Lajbisz Froman were particularly distinguished. Reb Aron Mendl Redlic was the
gabbai. The silken young men and the Gerer sons-in-law who received
room and board from their fathers-in-law created their own shtibl, which was
called the 14-ner or Cossacks. They surpassed the older
ones in zeal, did not know of compromise in making concessions and did not
refrain from slapping an opponent when it was necessary

The Radomsker Shtibl

The second spot in the city, according to the number of worshipers, was taken
by the Radomsker Hasidim. Their importance in the Hasidic world of the city was
very great. And if the Gerer Hasidim believed themselves powerful, the
Radomskers believed themselves to be aristocrats. The large Radomsker shtibl,
which was located on Jatke [butcher shop] Street, was a center of
Torah and Hasidism. Dozens of young men heartily studied a page of Gemara there
the entire day.

Many of the esteemed members of the city's middle class would pray in the
shtibl, as for example, Reb Nachum Cukerman, Abram Dawid Openhajm, Reb Mosze
Hersz Fiszl, Reb Szlomo Szajn, Abram Jakob Rajch, Jicchak Mordechai Gold, Hilel
Pachter, Zalman Ernst, the brothers Chaim and Meszulam Liwer, the brothers
Szlomo Josef and Jecheskiel Ber Openhajm, Gerszon Rechnic and Reb Jakob
Rechnic, a good bal-tefilah [cantor or person who recites the prayers] and a
better storyteller of rabbinic stories. The Radomsker Hasidim were famous as
good bale-tefila [plural of bal-tefilah] and loved to sing. Among them were the
Blind Jecheskiel (Frydman), Szlomo'le and Mosze'le Frajdman, Jakob Zyskind,
Szlomo Himelfarb, Abram and Gerszon Rechnic. Later, when the city grew there
were two more Radomsker shtiblech. One of them was on the market, which was
called the Katowice shtibl, because progressive Hasidim who would
travel to Katowice to enjoy themselves, worshiped there. Wolf Sztajnhart, Mosze
Lask, Berisz Rembiszewski, Aron Hendler, and others prayed in this shtibl. The
third shtibl was in the Szajn's house; it was called the Radomsker, perhaps
because the bale-tefila were the well known Radomsker Hasidim, the Blind
Jecheskiel, Jekl Zyskind and Abram Rechnic.

Aleksander Hasidim

The Aleksander Hasidim in the city also held themselves to be great aristocrats
and haughty people. They would not let themselves be pushed aside by the Gerer.
Several hundred Jews prayed in their only large shtibl on
Kołłątaja Street. There was also a yeshiva located in the shtibl
where young men would study a page of Gemara for the entire day with the head
of the yeshiva.

An entire group of the esteemed middle class of the city, such as Red Mendl
Dąb, Jicchak Aron Landau, parnes [elected head] of the kehila, the dayan
[religious judge] Dan Lipszyc, may God take revenge for his blood, Reb Lajbisz
Buchwajc, chairman of Mizrachi [religious Zionists] and others, prayed at the
Aleksander shtibl. The bale-tefila were Reb Jisralke Orbach and the brothers
Monje and Jicchak Aron Landau. The Aleksanders played a large role in the city,
first thanks to the constant struggle that they carried on with the Gerer
Hasidim and thanks to their Hasidim who held a distinguished place in the
Jewish community.

[Page 141]

Sochaczewer Hasidim

The Sochaczewer shtibl, which was located on Modrzejowska Street in
Hitelmacher's house, was also one of the largest in the city. Będzin had
enough refined Jews and rich men to be divided among all of the shtiblech, but
the Sochaczewer were distinguished by great scholars and keen minds, Jewish
scholars. We will remember a few of the several dozen minyanim who prayed in
the shtibl  the gabbaim: Reb Jakob M. Gutman, Reb Josef Grundman and Reb
Heniek Jungster; the bale-tefila: Jakob M. Gutman, Reb Josef Prawer, Reb Chaim
Dawid Rajch, Reb Aron Chaim Manhajmer, then Reb Juda Ferens, Reb Heszl Luftig,
Jakob Landau, Chanoch Jungster, the Naszalsker Rabbi's son, Reb Abram Orner,
Josef Grundman, Reb Hersz Josef Holender and his son, Fajwel, Reb Josef
Herszberg (Kuliszer), Reb Herszele Erlich, councilman in the Będziner city
council, Reb Majerl Herszkowicz, Dawid Erlich, Mendl Erlich (Fanja) and on and
on. Who can enumerate all of the dear Jews?

It is self-evident that other Hasidic shtiblech also had scholars, but it is
not possible to recall all of them here. We will only mention the names of the
shtiblech that were in our city, where thousands of Jews would come to pour out
their most pained hearts in times of trouble: the Kromołówer
shtibl, Amshinower [Mszczonów], Radoszicer [Radoszyce], Pilcer,
Suchedniówer, Pińczówer, Rozprzer [Rozprza], Chenciner
[Chęciny], Kocker [Kock], Sokołówer, Wolbórzer,
Szureker [Żarki] and even a shtibl for far-off Boyan, which was located
near the Hungarian border where the Boyaner Rebbe from the Sadigura dynasty
lived. Yet in 1870 the esteemed Będziner resident, Manela Lasker, founded
the Boyaner shtibl where the then rabbi Reb Icze Kimelman prayed (he later
became a Gerer Hasid); in the last years, the brothers Szalom and Dawid Lasker,
the esteemed Będziner rich men, Gutman, Richter and others prayed there.

*

At the conclusion of this article I will again recall the shtibl where I, as a
young boy dressed as a Hasid, would go with my father every Shabbos to pray.
Our shtibl was called Liwer's Bet-haMedrash. Later, the Amshinower
Hasidim took over control. Many years have already passed since then; I have
wandered across many lands and oceans, but many times I return to the shtibl in
my memory, where I spent my childhood playing nuts[10]or tag with friends.
Many times my father would come out in the middle of reading the Torah and pull
me by the ears back into the shtibl

Or Shabbos evening, when the Jews would sing the Shabbos songs with rapture,
clinging with all of their strength to Shabbos and not wanting to part with it,
we young boys would sit in a corner and tell stories about ghosts and devils,
about a prince and so on. We would also not want to part with the world of
dreams Until someone said with a sigh: Nu, we have to do the Maariv
[evening] prayer.

Zagłębieby Abram Blatt

In your festering alleys and streets
Days speed as dynamo belts
Skies darken over versts[11] and miles
With dark reeds and dusty columns.

The shtibl was small in quantity, perhaps three dozen Jews, but it had a great
influence in city matters in quality. Three dazars [synagogue wardens], all
from Aguda [Orthodox political party], prayed there and the two patriarchal
brothers, Abram and Kalman Liwer, and Bunem Bonhart, the great Hasid and bal
musaf[15]of the shtibl, may the Lord avenge his blood. Here I see the
beautiful and dear person, Jechiel Kurland, who was the main bal-tefila for
many years and the two young bale-tefila, the athletic Chanan Londner with his
strong voice and Jakob Zelmanowicz, whose quiet, somewhat hoarse voice was
still charming in his praying and finally the gabbai of the shtibl, the short
Reb Chaim Rubin, who would go home from praying every day at 12 or 1 in the
afternoon.

*

All of the synagogues and Hasidic shtiblech have become still; the voice of
Torah and prayer is no longer heard, perished in the great abyss that was named
Auschwitz.

All perished, no trace remains, no grave. There is no one to say kaddish
[prayer for the dead]; let these words be a gravestone for the dear Jews.
Yisgadal, vayiskadash [Magnified and sanctified  the first words of the
kaddish]

[Page 142]

Menachem'ke emigrates to Eretz Yisrael

by Dawid Malec

Translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund

We present here an excerpt from the Hebrew book, Ma'agalot [Cycles, also known
as Young Hearts], which has a connection to Będzin, from where the author,
Melec, comes.
The Editor

In his childhood years, when Menachem'ke spent days in the chadarim [religious
elementary schools; the singular is cheder] that were distasteful to him and
also in later years when he was freed from the burden of studying, being an
idler, he read widely and faithfully devoured entire books. He willingly sat
for hours, pensive, on the wooden bridge not far from the street where he
lived, listening to the noise of the water that he absorbed in his blood so
that it seems to him that he hears the echo of that noise even today.

There were two rooms, like two separate worlds, in the house where his parents
lived, which stood across from the great courtyard. One room that was large and
comfortable was dominated by the spirit of his father and of the people who
stood around him. In this room there were all kinds of noises from his father's
perplexing dealings.

Menachem'ke was very concerned about this room and its dealings, and many times
he tried to reproach his father about why he spent entire days idle,
unconcerned with the fate of the family and did not help to carry the burden of
earning a livelihood, which fell solely on him.

His mother  an entirely different world. There was so much warmth,
goodness and delicacy in her room. Sometimes on Friday when he returned from
cheder, sitting so deep in thought when the day was still so long and boring,
his mother came nearer to him, put her arms around him and nestled his head
with such love and tenderness in her heart and he snuggled in her warm,
fragrant bosom.

She served him some of the fish cooked for Shabbos. When he dipped the white,
warm challah [traditional braided Shabbos bread] in the golden fish soup, its
fragrance was like the intoxicating aroma of his mother, like the best wine
pouring into his blood. After having been in Eretz Yisrael for many years, he
often still felt this fragrant aroma.

His mother was always busy with the household, but her work was done so quietly
and with such satisfaction. She prepared and cleaned, washed and cooked,
polished and aired and always took care that the house was always freshly
whitewashed and that it sparkled beautifully and clean. As a result, she had
little time to devote to her vegetable garden that was planted in the spacious
courtyard and glimmered with its cultivation and would be cleared of weeds.

He always appreciated his closeness to his mother, both in his childhood years
and in the time of his youth. He was so thankful to her for her full and
limitless good heartedness. After the work at home in the evening hours, when
he wanted to thank her, he took her to the river, where the small barracks of
Stefan dem hoyker [the hunchback] stood. There, small boats of various colors
were tied up near the shore. Menachem'ke sat his mother in one of them. He
moved the oars and at the same time he looked in his mother's eyes from which
shone such clearness. He was delighted with her look and could not understand
from where he had gotten such a mother and who in general could equal her
because there was not another mother like her among all of the mothers in his
shtetl

When it was already dark, when everything was absorbed by the last light of
sunset, when quiet reigned everywhere and the echo of the oars was heard in the
slapping of the water  his mother sang some sort of song with such a
sweet, pleasant, little voice, a melody full of incomprehensible longing and
sadness.

When Menachem'ke decided to emigrate to Eretz Yisrael, his father was strongly
opposed, pacing in his large room, screaming and ranting because his son, his
only kaddish-zager [person who says the memorial prayer for the dead] was
leaving him alone with his heavy labor, in pulling the yoke of earning, going
to distant places where he would forget that he is a Jew, that there is
yiddishkeit [a sense of one's Jewishness] in the world and a G-d in heaven.

His mother also spilled many tears in sleepless nights on her bed in hiding,
when no one saw. It hurt her so much that her only son was leaving her. Only
God knew if she would have the privilege of seeing him again. But besides this,
she saw no obstacle to stop him, did not even try to stop him from his journey
and also did not exert any influence that he give up his trip and, in addition,
gave him her blessing on his long journey.

She prepared the necessary items for him for the long road and for his future
life in Eretz Yisrael, as if her heart had told her that was this the correct
road for her son, that his place was there in the agricultural work in the
Galilee, his hope and connection to working the land that he, Menachem'ke, had
often so beautifully described for her.

Yes, thanks to his mother's secret help, he had enough strength to withstand
his father's opposition and he emigrated, and a feeling of thanks and love for
the glorious image of his sweet mother accompanied him on his way to Eretz
Yisrael.

How, in general, was Menachem'ke's idea to go to Eretz Yisrael born? Much
youthful energy, deep feelings, clear hopes, golden dreams and joyous reports
collected in the hearts of the young people in all parts of Poland. During the
First World War, they came together in the Zionist union, they studied Hebrew
and sang songs of Zion that were interwoven with a glowing halo of sweet
longing for salvation, for redemption and they inhaled the national spirit and
were seized by ideas.

[Page 143]

The repercussions of the revolution and of the pogroms against the Jews in
Ukraine put in turmoil, shocked and quickly stirred up the young people's
hearts with anxiety; they influenced and exalted them.

And the creations of the Jewish poets, the poetic allusions which throbbed with
the eternal Jewish ache and affliction  they were not in vain and did not
fall on deaf ears. Sons and daughters of the ancient people of Israel tore
themselves to Eretz Yisrael, like waves that water dry land and bury the
shores. Coming to an empty land, they bound themselves to the earth with a
youthful fervor, with such impulsive passion to fertilize it, revive it from
its desolation.

Menachem'ke's birth pains with his work were difficult, in the difficult
climate of Eretz Yisrael, in empty, arid soil.

Arriving in the country, they assigned him to highway work in the Jordan Valley
where, because of the glowing heat, it seemed to him that he had fallen into a
lime kiln. And the barhash [tiny fly], a kind of insect that flew out of the
emptiness of the world during the cutting of the wheat in the fields, really
annoyed him, buzzing in his ears, penetrating into his nostrils and eyes,
biting and annoying, actually drove him crazy.

Wounds, blisters and various physical pains weakened him, making him unable to
do any work.

He struggled long for his survival; with stubborn strength he did what he had
to do in order to overcome the initial anguish of the pains of absorption that
he accepted with love, overcame them and actually integrated them into the
earth

([The original article was] translated by M. Hampel)

My first illegal visit from Krakow to Będzin in 1905*

by Jakob Kener

Translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund

* From the book Kvershnit [Cross Sections], New York, 1947

On a summer day in 1905, when I was at my work as secretary of the Austrian
Poalei-Zion [Workers of Zion, a labor Zionist group] Union in the office of the
trade employees union, Achdut in Krakow at Ditl Street 56, a strange, young man
entered and introduced himself as a Poalei-Zion comrade from Congress Poland.

In a conversation that developed between us, I learned that the guest from
Congress Poland was named Juda Leib Fajner, that he was from Będzin and
that he had come to Krakow to see a doctor about a health condition.

We informed each other about the affairs in the Russian and Austrian
Poalei-Zion party. One of the first, basic questions that Mr. Fajner was
interested in knowing about was: How had we, the Austrian Poalei-Zion, reacted
to Palestinism? Are we prognostic Palestinists, as are the majority
of the Russians, or perhaps, practical Palestinists because the
Polish union  according to the information from Comrade Fajner 
stood on the soil of principled Palestinism. [16]

I informed him that the Austrian party did not have a uniform stand as regards
this question and this was actually the way it was. The majority were
Palestinists as a matter of principle. There was also a considerable number of
practical and prognostic Palestinists and there were
also many who were completely indifferent to the attitude of how and why we
came to Palestinism. For them the conclusion itself was most important, that we
are Palestinists without any chicanery

Although I declared myself a prognostic Palestinist to Comrade Fajner, this did
not prevent him from inviting me to Będzin for a lecture. First, he wanted
the Będziner comrades to become acquainted with a Poalei-Zionist from the
Austrian party. Second, he believed that a prognostic justification of
Palestinism could more strongly defeat the S.S. (Zionist-Territorialists [who
believed in the creation of a Jewish territory, not necessarily in Eretz
Yisrael]), who were stronger at that time in the entire Zagłębie area.

We talked shortly before his return home about when I should come to
Będzin and how I would inquire about him.

In order to cross the border, one had to have a foreign passport or at least a
short-term pass that every businessman could receive for use during the course
of eight days. However, I could not receive such a pass because my connection
to the Austrian army was then not yet regular I had not committed an
offense in regard to the army, God forbid, but I simply had not had any time to
appear before the conscription board, and therefore my documents were not in
order. This did not hinder my trips across all of Austria's provinces for an
entire year, but I could not obtain a pass to spend several days in Congress
Poland because of this.

I was in need but had good ideas and I turned to Comrade Idel
Nusbaum (in his time a worker from our Austrian movement) to ask him to obtain
such a pass for himself and lend it to me for several days.

[Page 144]

Idel Nusbaum was a good and disciplined comrade by nature. When he heard about
what was happening, he went to the police administration and, on another day,
he brought the requested pass in his name.

I was taken aback and surprised when I received the pass by the thought that I
would soon be in Russia[17] I would taste of the flavor of illegal
meetings and, in addition, I would use a foreign pass I did not even look
at the passengers, but I immediately ran for the train

Sitting in the train between Krakow and Granica (the former border station
between Austria and Russia) I first studied my document in order to memorize
the names of my new parents By chance I also looked at the remaining
columns and to my great amazement I saw that, according to the document, I was
a blond, tall, with a long face and four years older than I really was

It should be understood that I did not feel good about this and my imagination
began to paint pictures about how I would fail and how the Czarist gendarmes
would sent me to Siberia Meanwhile, I had already reached the border, and
before long, I would have to show my pass. We arrived in an Austrian train at
the side of the station and in order to board the Russian train I had to pass
through the border office on the station platform on the other side of the
station. I took heart and marched together with all of the other
passengers. When the border gendarmes had patted me down on all sides, rummaged
through my pockets, I was skillful and ostensibly smiled However, when an
old man with red bands began to look into my pass, I became redder than his
bands and I felt as if I had lost the ability to speak

It appeared that the old man did not know the Polish and German letters very
well, with which the Austrian pass of the tall and blonde Idel Nusbaum, with
the long face, had been filled out. And he gave it back to me at once, showing
me which door I needed to use to go out to the station platform.

Coming through the search, I thought I was free of all troubles and I ran
straight to the ticket office in order to buy a train ticket to Będzin.
However, you must understand my desperation  the train to Będzin
left the next day at eight o'clock in the morning and it was then just five
o'clock in the afternoon. I only had a third class ticket and waiting on the
station platform or even in the station with someone else's pass the entire
night was not a safe matter and I had to find another
alternative

I immediately spoke to a Polish speaking train conductor who had to leave in
around an hour with a freight train to Będzin. Instead of buying a ticket,
I gave him the amount in question and he sat me in his cabin

It was a starry summer night. The trip had lasted terribly long, from six
o'clock in the evening until two at night. It was frighteningly boring, mixed
with vague fear I spent most of the time of the trip on the steps of the
cabin, looking into the distant void of the strange fields, happy about each
shining small fire that appeared here and there from afar in the peasant houses
and I was nervous about the weird barks of the village dogs The remaining
time that we remained at the station, I had to shove myself in the conductor's
cabin so that the other train workers who were busy loading and unloading goods
would not see me. And in such a packed up condition I had to go
back and forth along with all of the crates and casks  shoved along with
the train car and tired out I would only crawl out of my hiding place when we
left the station in order to breathe a little freer

The conductor told me the news at two o'clock in the morning that we had
arrived in Będzin. However, as it was dangerous to go out onto the
platform itself, he told me to jump off while the train was moving and to go a
few steps on foot until I came closer to the station. He showed me
the direction that I needed to go and advised me that just before the station,
I should jump over a garden fence and I would already be on the road that went
straight into the city.

I chose to follow his advice and with a rare frivolity, I jumped off the moving
train. In jumping from the train I used my experience as a former gymnast (in
today's terminology it would be referred to as a former athlete)
and nothing bad happened to me. However, the journey to the station
continued for about three to four kilometers and after half an hour's lonesome
march on the side of the railroad tracks, with the accompaniment of a curious
canine music, I reached the garden fence, over which I crawled and actually
found myself on the highway into the city.

First of all, I tapped my pockets; did I have my only possessions  the
pass in Idel Nusbaum's name? And then happy, I left to enter the city. Although
I was satisfied that my doubly illegal trip was successful, I thought about the
question of what I did now as I strolled through the streets of Będzin at
three in the morning. I did not have any money for a hotel. It was useless to
knock at the café where Comrade Fajner would meet me because there was no one
there. So I was indeed greatly perplexed.

Walking so early in the morning absorbed in thought, I suddenly noticed a white
silhouette slinking in the distance. Of course I was not afraid of the dead,
but I could not understand why a figure in shrouds was coming to the middle of
the city at three in the morning.

This enigma was cleared up when the distant figure came nearer to me and I saw
before me a Jewish bakery worker.

[Page 145]

So, since it was a worker and, particularly a Jewish one, I became emboldened
and asked him if he perhaps knew where a young man named Juda-Leib Fajner
lived. Hearing Fajner's name, the baker became very relaxed with me. Oh,
you are most likely the speaker from Krakow? I know you do not have to use any
schemes with me; I am also a comrade. I know that they have been waiting for
you for several days. We are preparing for a large meeting on Shabbos. Tell me,
are you a good muscle man? We need to break up the Esesovyetz [members of the
Socialist Zionist party].

I played the fool and tried to protect the writings from confiscation. Arguing
that I was only Fajner's relative and I only was asking that he take me to his
home. However, the bakery worker did not let himself be made the
fool. He led me to a hotel, called, asked for Juda Leib Fajner and
said that I should be given a room. He told me to sleep until my
relative came to wake me.

In the morning, at 10 o'clock, there was a knock at the door while I was
washing myself. The knocking was a little too quick. Reluctantly, the thought
flew through me that gendarmes were coming to arrest me. However, when I opened
the door and Comrade Fajner entered, my heart was a little lighter

It was already Thursday morning. Comrade Fajner led me to a
proletarian coffeehouse, where I spent both Thursday and Friday
from morning to late in the evening. This was our party coffeehouse, where
through the entire night  and mainly in the evenings  passionate
discussions were carried on. The owner of the coffee house lived in an interior
room and meetings of our committee as well as of the professional commissions
would take place there.

At that time, the Będziner organization carried on wide ranging
professional activity. The bakers, the house employees, the wagon drivers, the
trade employees and the leather workers were organized by us. In addition to
Fajner, the only leading comrade I remember was Herszl Sztatler, for whom
everyone had a great deal of respect because of his patrician background and he
had a reputation for his plan to place larger financial penalties on the local
wealthy men on behalf of the organization. That summer, all Zagłębie
reverberated with the story of what Comrade Herszl Sztatler had done to a
wealthy Będziner man because of his refusal to pay a large sum to the
Poalei-Zion organization as a penalty for a sin committed against his
employees. Herszl fooled the rich man into going to the river so that they
could swim together and when the culprit had taken off all of his clothing and
was stark naked, several lads with nettle brooms in their hands appeared as if
growing out of the earth and they beat the rich man from all sides, so that he
danced boyi beShalom [Boyi beShalom means come in peace and
is a line in a song sung on Friday night referring to the arrival of the queen,
Shabbos. The song is often danced to and has come to mean getting someone so
beaten up that he will dance to any song, in other words, will agree to
anything].

It should be understood that after this when things became better for him, he
was informed that he must pay so much for the beating. He paid this time and
the one who collected the fine from him was no one else but Comrade Herszl
Sztatler himself

In the coffeehouse, I heard many stories that to me, the Austrian,
sounded simply like tales from a 1001 nights. However, if I doubted any of them
for a moment, the meeting on Shabbos convinced me that we can and we must
believe the Będziner Poalei-Zion in everything.

After eating on Shabbos, a discussion was called with the Socialist Zionists.
The meeting was illegal and it was held in the Bet Midrash. Before going to the
meeting, I received several rubles from the committee so that if something
happened I would have a few rubles in my pocket and if we were successful in
having the meeting end peacefully, I could go straight from there to the train.
I sat in the coffeehouse and waited for a messenger that I could go. The
messenger arrived at exactly three o'clock and took me to the Bet Midrash. I
confess in full that I was interested in the manner in which the lecture was
organized, in what the lecture should be. I was greatly impressed by the fact
that the Bet Midrash was surrounded on all sides by our guard, with comrades
from the security guards and the entire street that led to the entrance to the
Bet Midrash was guarded by comrades. At the door itself, two comrades with guns
in their pocket stood on each side. Only Poalei-Zionists and Socialist Zionists
members were permitted to enter (there were no Bundists in Będzin) and
whoever was allowed inside received notice from the two security comrades at
the door that they could not leave in the middle of the discussion and, in
addition, were discretely shown what was in the pockets of the guards.

The Bet Midrash was fully packed with hundreds and hundreds of all kinds of men
and woman workers. There were older young people and even a considerable number
of very young people, which was then a rare phenomenon, although in Będzin
(as well as in Sosnowiec), there was then a small Poalei-Zion organization and
it was mobilized for this meeting.

My report lasted over two hours. It had to last that long because if not,
according to the comrades, I would not have made a hit with the masses
What I talked about then was forbidden, if I remember now I remember only
that a member of the Socialist Zionists who had been brought on that Shabbos
from Częstochowa, which had earlier been the fortress of the
Socialist-Territorialists and then the independents, spoke after
me When my opponent ended and I went up to the lectern in order to answer
him, someone from the masses roared that it seemed that the police were coming
and we did not need anything more. In one blink of an eye, this roar traveled
across the entire Bet Midrash and all of the many hundreds of bodies in the
audience started for the entrance at once. There was nearly a catastrophe.

[Page 146]

Only thanks to the committee members it ended calmly. One of them immediately
called out: Do not be provincial! There are no police! The door guards with
their guns stood opposite and would not permit the audience to run
in a panic. Only when order was restored so that they could calmly be permitted
to exit was the door of the Bet Midrash opened. But the entire near catastrophe
ended with my not being able to have the final word. As later became known,
this was a S.S. trick because they wanted an impression of their
Częstochower opponent to remain with at least portion of the audience.

As I began to go from the Bet Midrash to the train, a 12-year old
delegate from the Sosnowiec organization of the small
Poalei-Zion approached me and declared that they wanted me to go their
meeting hall.

I said goodbye to the Będziner committee members and immediately traveled
to Sosnowiec. My visit of a few hours to Sosnowiec that year and my return to
Krakow is worth a separate chapter that I will write at an appropriate time.
Now I want only to end this: that my above described illegal trip and my report
in the Będziner Bet Midrash were for me at that time such an important
event that they left a strong and lasting impression on me.

There was a town Będzin

by Josl Harif

Translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund

I still hear the faint sound of your region, Będzin; I feel you still
alive. Filled with the joy of children and song. I see and feel your grayness,
your joy, your worry, your Shabbosdike [Sabbath] slumber and your daily
intensity.

I still remember the look that shone in the eyes of your dear young people,
gorgeous personalities of general intelligence. A characteristic Jewish city
with characteristic Jews, Jews hammered on a steel foundation, born in sanctity
to maintain their Yiddishkeit [a sense of one's Jewishness] until the time of
the Messiah. Immersed in Yiddishkeit.

Her charity institutions, her institutions, her gorgeous synagogue, her
schools, were a sample of the entire Zagłębie area.

Wonderful, rooted types of Jews in an old Jewish city, filled with tradition
and a glorious history. Będzin, which was transformed into ruins, forgive
me; I no longer dream of your reconstruction

I ask and pray that we will have the strength to draw together your destroyed
desires, your longings, your love of Israel;  and that they will be woven
in and your tender Yiddishkeit will be protected in rebuilt Jerusalem. Stand
up, dear Będzin through Gilgul Mechilot, [the underground migration to
Israel of the dead when the Messiah comes and the dead are resurrected] stand
up and gather here, resurrected in the Messiah's truth!

The name of Będzin entered and dominated my heart and mind during my
childhood years. My years were accompanied by pictures of Będzin.

In the first place, my brother, Chaske, the oldest in our house, and a daring
young man, left the village of Piotkowice, located in the Kielcer District,
where we lived for many years, and went to Będzin. As small as I was then,
my father's worry is etched in my memory, that as an employee in Nachum
Cukerman's large warehouse, he [Chaske] could, God forbid, become entangled
with the strikers. This was actually in the stormy year of 1905. My father's
premonition came true and he lived to see a son in the group
Achdut [United or Union]

When my brother Chaske came home for a holiday, he gathered all of the peasants
from the village around him. I would eavesdrop on their talks in front of our
window, which lasted until deep into the night.

His reddish whiskers, thick eyebrows, a short jacket and dark hat said that
here stood a Będzin worker, a class conscious young man who did not take
the Russian regime to his heart.

I remember also the Mume [aunt] Cerka. She still dances around in
our hut, in winter wrapped in a shawl, a cape hanging on her
shoulders, a basket with pieces of candy on her arm.

The Mume Cerka was not our aunt; we referred to her in this way out of love.

Once a year, at Chanukah time, she would come to sell her husband's products.
He was a candymaker in Będzin. She represented the Jewish working woman
type of that time, who suffered for every kopek.

My mother showed her great respect, treated her to hot coffee and
snacks. She remained with us for a few days. She told wonderful
stories from the large city of Będzin.

The Mume, who loved Eretz Yisrael and considered herself a Zionist, brought
with her brochures about Herzl for my mother and spoke quietly about Eretz
Yisrael. A tear fell from my mother's eye.

[Page 147]

And when the Mume Cerka left us, my mother told us that she was a Zionist and
for a time she sang a little song that I still remember today.

And for me her likeness is particularly engraved as a Sarah Bat Tovim [the
author of Three Portals, a booklet of Yiddish prayers intended for
use by women], to whose thin bones poverty clings.

My mother also told me about the teacher, Miler, whom my grandfather had
brought from Będzin. This was an elegant, tidy Jew, who wore Zwicker
[pince-nez / eyeglasses] on the tip of his nose and wore pressed pants with a crease. Many
years later when I lived in Sosnowiec, I met a very neat old man by chance. I
recognized him from my mother's description from my childhood, with the same
pince-nez on his nose, pants with a crease, but his thin, slender body leaned
on a cane. With tears in his eyes, he, my mother's old teacher, asked about
every particular.

The Jews who wandered across the Będzin district with heavy sacks on their
backs, looking up with pleading eyes to the windows and calling out,
Trade, trade float before my eyes. Perhaps some would sell them
some old things. Among these Jews were scholars, although they were degraded by
the heavy burden of earning a living. However in exaltation of their holy soul,
they carried their Yiddishkeit to a high spiritual sphere and made the onus of
earning a livelihood easier on their backs.

Będzin had a Jewish vice president for a long time, the only Hebrew-Polish
Gymnazia [high school] in the entire area, an active communal life. The
painters Apelbaum and Cygler still stand before my eyes and I see them standing
on scaffolds with faces to the ceiling where they painted the Będzin
synagogue, and Jewish children looked through cracks to see them at their holy
vocation.

I shudder that all of this is a ruin, was transformed into ash. Shabbat
afternoons on the górka [Polish: hill], filled with youthful joy, there where
the old Polish castle tells of Jewish-Polish legends. Będzin, here are a
thousand years of history immersed in your waters of the Przemsza [a river in
the south of Poland].

How much warm Yiddishkeit was inherent in the Jewish porters (bachmanes) and
how did the bottom of the mountain [the poor people who never made it up the
mountain] look to Mendele Mocher Sfarim [pseudonym of Szalom Jakob Abramowicz]
(Di Zimny [Polish for chill, here indicating a sense of hopelessness])
with its beggars. Będzin was an assemblage of everything Jewish life
possessed.

How many stories did the murdered poet and essayist Max Erik (Zalman Merkin)
tell me about Będzin, about discussions until daybreak with his uncle,
Pejsachson, the Bundist; of the discussions  only a trace remains.
Struggled for bread and believed in ideals. Certainly historians will come, who
will weigh and measure the history of Jews in Poland and, of course,
Zagłębie, particularly Będzin, will occupy a noteworthy place.
It is not without cause that she achieved a respected page in the history of
Polish Jewry.

Sączewskiego Street was known in Będzin, named for Sączewski, a
gentile, who knew Jewish life very well, was a friend of the Jews and truly
lived as a Jew.

Once after the welcoming of Shabbat when Jews would take their guests home to
their table for Shabbat meals, one of the poor men was left and there was no
one to take him home. The Jew, poor thing, stood ashamed, biting his lips at
his bitter luck.

And as he stood this way, an elegantly dressed man, not in a Jewish way,
appeared and asked him in a warm Yiddish: Reb Yid, [Reb Yid is a polite
way of addressing a man one does not know and is the equivalent of
sir.] why are you standing there so worried? The poor man
answered: No one took me home to their table for Shabbat. The man
smiled and said: Come with me. The poor man followed after the
elegant man to his residence and there opened before him illuminated parlors
with gleaming chandeliers and a table prepared with everything good. The host
said to the poor man: Say Kiddush [blessing over wine] and wash [ritual
washing done with the recitation of a blessing before a meal]; my household has
already eaten. The Jew said Kiddush by himself and washed in preparation
for eating the challah. And Jewish cooked fish appeared, soup and meat. The
guest said the blessing after a meal, thanked his host and left.

The Jew came to the poor house to spend the night and told the other guests the
wondrous story of what happened to him. Naturally, the guests were jealous of
him and asked how it was. They determined that he had eaten at the home of a
gentile, at Sączewski's. There was a loud cry and the story reached the
dayan [religious judge]. The dayan sent for Sączewski and asked him: -
Was it possible? How could you, an honest man like you; you caused a Jew
to sin in this way? The gentile answered: Why does the poor man
want an answer now? He saw that there was no mezuzah in my home. Why did he eat
in my home?  This was the character of the city, even the gentiles
assimilated among the Jews.

There were times of unyielding, more intense Yiddishkeit. There was
Będzin, [which] lived, wrestled with itself, struggled. Each of us carries
in our heart victims who were close to us, who departed in flames and smoke.

Little by little the world forgets, or wants to forget what happened!

In our homes, in our society, brilliant souls suddenly appeared in Jewish homes
that were effervescent with aspirations. The Jewish people loved homes that
believed in the world and this world was cruelly silent.

On the threshold of building Eretz Yisrael, wherever we come together for a
yahrzeit [anniversary of a death], we will gather the souls of the dear ones,
the annihilated Jews, who were not destined to be here with us in the third
house [Translator's note: Possibly an allusion to building the Third Temple in
Jerusalem]. But we will always carry their holy memory in our hearts.

______________

Translator's Notes

Nuts were used in various games played by Jewish children, including a sort of
bowling game. return

Old Russian measure of distance equaling about .66 of a mile or 1.06
kilometers. return

The bal musaf is the person who recites the prayers during musaf service 
additional prayers said on Shabbos and holidays. return

Prognostic Palestinism was espoused by Dov Borochov, who
believed that the Jewish homeland should be Palestine. The practical Palestinists
believed that there were other possible locations for a Jewish homeland. return

Poland had ceased to exist as a nation after numerous
partitions and Będzin was at this time part of the Russian Empire. return

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